Valdeci Darocha open shoved from the cutoff for ~2M. Jonathan Gonzalez made the call from the button while risking roughly 15% of his stack. The blinds folded and it would be a flip for Darocha’s tournament life.

Darocha A♠Q♣ vs Gonzalez 2♥2♦ Pot: ~4.2M

Board: 4♥5♥6♠J♦10♦

Gonzalez eliminates another opponent with a pair of deuces. This time, he put the chips at risk before the flop instead of waiting to flop a boat to continue. However, the result is the same and he wins the flip and brings a pay-jump to the field. Gonzalez now holds a significant chip-lead with ~16M over Matt Sullivan who has ~7-8M.

Zhenjie Hou opened the pot from the cutoff and was shoved on by Mathew Ferrante in the small blind for 1.1M total. Hou made the call and would be in a dominating position to score the knock-out.

Hou A♥Q♠ vs A♦8♦ Pot: ~2.4M

Board: 6♦10♠K♣2♦J♠

Mathew Ferrante is eliminated in 9th place for $3,459.

A couple of hands later, Chris McCloskey opened the pot from late position and was shoved on by Mario Trujillo in the small blind for 1.4M total. McCloskey made the call immediately and would be flipping with Trujillo.

Bharathku Ramanna had gotten extremely short before finding an opportunity to put his stack at risk. Matt Sullivan opened to 225k from middle position and Ramanna put his remaining 180k in the middle from the cutoff. Valdeci Darocha made the call from the big blind creating a side-pot of 90k.

Flop: 3♠3♣9♣ Main Pot: 740k Side Pot: 90k

Check/check.

Turn: 8♠

Darocha checked. Sullivan bet 325k and was called.

River: 10♣ Side Pot: 740k

Darocha checked again. Sullivan fired ~850k and got the fold.

Sullivan 9♥9♦ vs Ramanna 4♦3♦

Ramanna managed to flop a huge hand considering the situation but ran into a flopped boat from Sullivan.

Jonathan Gonzalez and Everton Taylor are two of the bigger stacks at the table and traded a couple of blows during Level 29. The most recent hand was picked up on the turn with the board reading A♥8♠6♠3♠ and ~500k in the middle. Gonzalez led out for 285k and was called by Taylor.

River: A♠

Gonzalez led once again, 975k. Taylor went into the tank long enough to have the clock called on him. During his 30-second clock, Taylor made the call and got the bad news.

Gonzalez held the A♣8♣ for a full-house while Taylor showed the K♠ and had to muck after hitting the nut-flush on the end.

Valdeci Darocha limped from under the gun and Vitaly Kovyazin limped behind on the button. Zhenjie Hou raised from the small blind to 600k total and was flatted by Chris McCloskey in the big blind. The two limpers folded to the raise and they would see the flop heads-up with McCloskey having just 900k behind.

Flop: Q♠7♠6♦ Pot: ~1.55M

Hou moved all-in on the flop and was quickly called by McCloskey who had connected with the board.

Hou 5♣5♥ vs McCloskey Q♦8♦ Pot: ~3.35M

Turn: 8♣

River: 3♦

McCloskey made a speculative call pre-flop but was rewarded after making a pair. He wouldn’t win easily though as Hou picked up a nice sweat with a straight draw on the turn. The river bricked and McCloskey chips up to ~3.35M while Hou is left with ~2.3M.